Trader Gregory Rowe, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Dec. 4, 2015. Stocks are posting solid gains Friday morning after the U.S. government reported another month of strong... (Richard Drew)

(Newser)
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The stock market had its biggest gain since September after the US government reported another solid month of job gains. The encouraging news on the economy Friday paved the way for the Federal Reserve to begin nudging interest rates back toward normal levels at its policy meeting later this month. Energy stocks didn't join the rally, and fell instead as the price of oil took another tumble after OPEC said it wouldn't curb production. The Dow Jones industrial average soared 369 points to 17,847. The Standard & Poor's 500 index jumped 42 points to 2,091. And the Nasdaq composite increased 104 points to 5,142. It was an increase of 2.1% across the board.

The days gains were enjoyed by a number of retailers and biotechnology companies. Beauty product maker Avon was up 23 cents and is reportedly talking with Cerberus Capital Management about a potential deal. Discount retailer Five Below and regular clothing retailer Zumiez were up $1.52 and 74 cents respectively after better-than-expected revenue. Stock for biotech company Trevena was up 52 cents as its potential pain drug received special FDA status to help speed up its development and review. Finally, KaloBios Pharmaceuticals—which has been involved in some negative press recently—was up $1.81 and is raising $8.2 million through a private placement of stock.

The employment to population ratio remains the same as last month, 59.3. It is up 1.1% from the 2008 recession's low, but still 4.1% lower than before the recession. http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12300000 And to all the 'boomers retired' people, no, 5.2% of the population, or 23% of the boomers didn't retire in 2008-9 to drop the employment rate so low. As a matter of fact, boomers commonly aren't prepared for retirement, and are working in greater and greater numbers. http://www.gallup.com/poll/166952/baby-boomers-reluctant-retire.aspx Here are the numbers if you want to do the math. http://www.bbhq.com/bomrstat.htm

kumatose

Dec 5, 2015 8:03 AM CST

Thank you President Obama for accomplishing a very functional recovery after the republican's economic destruction of 2008... Imagine how much better off the US would be today if the republicans who presided over the worst economic destruction known to modern man had helped you clean up their mess instead of impeding the recovery.... ... the least they could have done was get out of the way.

ToddM

Dec 5, 2015 7:08 AM CST

Not sure what is going on here. Ther numbers are pathetic, actually half of this time last year. 212K is a scary number for anyone in the know for the holidays. Its too early for election hoopla for Hillary. So either the economy is getting ready to fall of a a cliff or Trumps numbers are terrifying the Hillary campaign and the DNC felt something needed to be done. Either way, the power of the DNC to affect a news story is astounding.